eternally chaotic

Christmas this year introduced a new member to our family named Red.  And NO to those of you thinking the unthinkable – the family head count remains at a solid seven, including the dog.  This little persons name, after much enthusiastically and somewhat fanatical debate among existing family members was determined to be “Red”.  Red the Christmas Elf.  He would only be around for a few weeks out of the year, didn’t eat much and pretty much remained stationary throughout the day – at some point during the day, when our eyes were cast elsewhere, he would just vanish until the next morning.  Red had some specific rules about being touched or bothered as well – certainly the kids were to strictly forbidden to touch him and to leave him alone lest he lose his observational and somewhat magical powers granted by the spirit that is Christmas.  Red’s job was to cast a watchful eye upon his family, take score of the good versus bad and report back to some higher power a recommendation as to which list each household member might befit.  Somehow during his strictly “observational” process he would always find a way to cause mischief and leave a mess.

Two nights before Christmas however, Red left something additional in each of the stockings of the Children of the Corn.  A gold dipped envelope containing a silver inked letter from The Man himself.  Now was the time of reckoning.  The time of knowing.  Was it the good list or the bad.  What did Santa think?  What did he know?  When we opened our weary eyes the next morning would they sparkle and shine from majestic reflection of silver and gold or be dim from broken hope and disappointment.

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Jacob wrote a story recently for school about some time we spent playing in the yard.  I thought instead of writing something up along with the pictures and video I would just use his story.  Let him know what you think.

2010 was the year that I got my dad two katana swords for his birthday.  Which I thought was really cool.  The sad thing is that I didn’t get to play with them until last Saturday.  Also because it was one year since I had got those swords. They’re really cool and it was worth the waiting!  They are made of white oak which is a very strong type of wood. One of the swords is over half the weight of the other!  I could barely lift it.  Well, anyway I asked my dad, “Can I get the ninja swords out and play with them?”.  “Gosh, I totally forgot about them!”, dad replied. “Well, all right.”

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The kids are back in school, summer is at its height and the daily scheduled grind has taken hold.  Thank goodness for the break brought by Labor Day.  We had not ambitious plans and wanted nothing other than to spend some time with the kids and enjoy our time off.  There was plenty to do however that we talked about through the summer but just couldn’t fit in so we planned to take full advantage of our few days of free time and get in some activities with the CoTC.  Specifically we wanted to see the DragonCon Parade, Atlanta Aquarium and Stone Mountain Laser Show.

DragonCon was back in town and while I would have preferred to have purchased tickets and gone sightseeing at the actual show, it was cost prohibitive to take all the kids – even if the cost was right there was no way I was taking them to wait for tickets in the six hour line that literally wrapped around the block.  The parade was a good second and something I had never seen as well.  The kids loved it.  We found a nice spot to watch above the road and behind some glass that we were able to squeeze in to – certainly better than being at ground level with four munchkins that couldn’t see over a shrubbery.  The costumes were pretty awesome and all of us had our favorites.  Jacob took the only pictures with his camera and the rest of us just soaked it in.

Next up was a walk to the Atlanta Aquarium.  We had been planning to take the kids here all summer but just couldn’t find the time to do it.  Labor Day probably wasn’t the wisest choice in timing though as it was packed wall to wall with people.  Crazy.  Oh well, tickets had been purchased already online so at the very least we were able to bypass the ridiculously long entry line and head straight in.  Having been many times in the past we were hoping to see some of the new exhibits that had been added such as the dolphins but they were not open unless you purchased another ticket specifically to view them.  We instead took our time strolling from room to room and soaking up the sites.  Many times just sitting in front of a particular wall and watching everything swim around.  We managed to time our trip to the main viewing room of the large tank in time for the feeding of the massive whale sharks.  The biologist would drop buckets of krill onto the surface and the whales would basically inhale massive amounts of water and filter it through their gills each eating twenty pounds or so of these obviously delicious morsels per bite.

We did not end up going to Stone Mountain as it started raining early in the evening.  With the laser light show changing this year to something new and supposedly now in a type of 3-D where it looks like they are inside of the mountain we were bummed and will hopefully get to check it out before the season ends.

All in all a great weekend with the family.  Lots of time away from the house but also plenty of time at home to just take it easy and chill.

The kids are challenged by their school to read, read, and read even more.  All in an effort to get them reading at or above the state mandated reading recommendations for their age group and class.  The program is called “Read to Succeed” and requires the kids to read six hours of material over two months.  We take the program a step farther and turn reading into a nightly bedtime requirement.  Thirty minutes before lights out the CoTC head up to their rooms, grab their latest chapter book, board book, Lego magazine, game manual, or whatever might float their fancy for the evening and partake in some serious forced leisure time.  More often than not they pass through several books during this time and certainly rack up more hours than required by the program.  The reward for this challenge is a free ticket to Six Flags Over Georgia.  That is quite a great deal for us as well since kids tickets run $45 and adult tickets are $54.  Lump that into a quick buy one get one free coupon for Carol and I and we end up getting a day of fun for something we would enforce regardless of the program requirements.

Our family outing to partake in combating Georgia heat exhaustion while getting our thrills happened to be this weekend.  Everyone was excited and pumped to go.  We spent the evening prior with the boys watching various rides on YouTube so that they knew what they were getting into if they decided to ride some “real” roller coasters.  Isaac thought there were all cool but wanted nothing to do with actually riding one.  Jacob adamantly wanted to ride the Mind Bender.  The girls had recently been to Kings Island in Ohio with Grandma and Grandpa and were psyched as well to see what Six Flags had to offer.  Weather checked, bag of snacks and water packed, sunscreen applied, we headed out toward adventure.

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After about two months of talking about it, we finally got our day at the gun range.  Jacob has been very patient over the past few weeks as trips have been planned and rescheduled or rescheduled and cancelled.  Today though was the perfect day and instead of just Jacob and I going, we were all able to go and take our shots.  We headed to Bulls Eye Marksman Gun Club and Indoor Range.

Jacob was interested in shooting his first rifle and after a few months of talking about it and learning the various safety aspects of doing so, it was time.  They both hear me talking about going to the range and have been interested in joining me.  I thought that would be excellent as well and have been working to that end.  I certainly want them to understand and respect weapons as they grow, in particular if they have an interest – one of those instances where if they have an itch it sometimes helps to let them scratch it with you versus with someone else.  Regardless I want them to understand what is acceptable and what is not.  What rifles, shotguns and pistols are for, how to be safe around them and what to know and do when they might handle one.  This was our first hands on lesson.

The day had finally come.  We don’t have a small caliber rifle and I was wanting to start him out light with a 22 so both the noise and recoil didn’t give him a bad taste from the beginning.  The range had a nice bolt action Ruger 22/77 with a low power scope that we took out for a spin.  I was hoping for something with iron sites as a start but this was what they had and we made the best of it.  It was a bit heavy though and there was some awkwardness in holding it because of the weight but the boys made the best of it and shot quite well.

Jacob won the coin toss and got first shot.  He did remarkably well considering he had never shot before and we were in a very crowded and loud range with lots of noise offering easy distraction.  His first two shots found their mark near the center and he was excited to continue.  We let each of they boys run a clip through and took turns at the reload.  Isaac had some initial trouble with sighting through the scope and adjusting to the weight.  We propped it up on a towel that the range had for just this scenario and let him hold it a bit short and he was able to find his mark.  After a few errant shots he slowly worked his way into the black and orange and as the shooting continued he was able to keep his mark most of the time.

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Getting an answer as to what Violet wanted for her birthday dinner was a challenge.  She has been staying with Grandma and Grandpa the past few weeks prior to her birthday and upon asking her she offered as many different options as there were nights that she was away.  In the end it landed on Corn Dogs and French Fries, one of her favorites.  It is amazing how many corn dogs and batches of yummy fried potatoes a crowd can devour.  It is also great that Costco sells them in bulk.  It was weird for us this time around.  All of the past meals the kids have chosen have required some amount of time laboring either at the grill or on the stoves.  This time the oven and deep fryer did all the work and we got to relax and hang out with the family.

With full bellies we moved onto let Violet open her Gifts.  I think the only way Violet could have been more focused on opening gifts or on the attention she was getting was if an actual horse happened to pop out while she was tearing away layers of wrapping paper.  It would not have matter if it didn’t weigh in at a certain number of stones or wasn’t so many hands tall.  She wouldn’t have cared.  It would have received a huge hug and she would have declared: “It is exactly what I was asking for”.  Now there was no real horse of course unless you count the adhesive in the tape but that did not discourage her.  Violet was quietly excited sitting behind the little table as she received and opened her birthday cards and gifts.

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It has taken a lot to interfere with hardcore procrastination and extreme distractedness to finally get these photos uploaded.  As mentioned in a previous post last year, Carol and I had a photo session for our engagement and out of it came a slew of great pictures.  I figured now was a good as time as any to break the lazy streak and get them online.

The South: The heat and humidity can become annoyingly unbearable in the summer, temperatures rising way over 100 degrees.  To stay cool and enjoy our summer vacation we have decided to spend lots of much needed time in the cold refreshing waters.  Mommies and Daddies get to relax and kiddos are able to release wild energies that are built up and have a blast in the process.

It was very entertaining to watch the boy’s play with Jacob’s new flippers.  Isaac spent most of the day using them as paddles on his hands while riding his tube.  Jacob tried them for a short period and decided today wasn’t the day to learn (water guns were way more exciting).  Israel or should I say “Scuba Steve”, (lol) swam around the pool like a wild shark amusing us girls (Piper, Violet & I)

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This was a flight a long time in the making and well worth the wait.  Last Easter Carol led me on an egg hunt around the house, each egg progressing the hunt and adding clues to what might lie at the end.  After each nook and cranny had been covered and the final egg discovered I found inside one of these containers of delight a pair of tickets for a flight in a biplane from Bi-Plane Atlanta.  The tickets were good for a year, and thank goodness for that.  With all of our time and energy focused on our wedding as well as learning to tango it was certainly something that would be a great distraction later.  Well later turned into the summer and then to the fall.  By then it was to cold to ride and enjoy it – the biplane was an open canopy and the air only gets colder the higher you go – regardless of how close you get to the Sun.  :)

We took off from Peachtree-Dekalb (PDK) airport around lunch time on a near perfect day.  It was a touch chilly, especially at altitude and it was really windy – that was our pilot, Otie’s problem though and only became ours if he wasn’t successful at managing it.  But no complaining from us as it was perfectly clear and sunny.  Our seats were in the front and the view was great.  It was weird taxiing though when you couldn’t see where you were going except by looking out the side or sticking your head out from behind the windscreen.  Otie kept swerving the plane back and forth on the taxiway to see what was in front of us – onlookers probably thought we were drunk, out joy riding.

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Right about the time we settled in for the night Carol noticed a few missed calls on her phone, each kind enough to leave a message – or well a warning – about the impending doom that should befall us all later this very night.  According to some Nature was about to play some cruel joke on us all and give the ill equipped and even less prepared South a taste of snow.  With recent changes in our home entertainment we no longer receive the nightly news in a manner that is useful so we checked online – sure enough.  Ok…well, lets be honest – the reports showed a bunch of people in lines at the store with cart loads of groceries, now while that is certainly news, in the South it could mean an number of arbitrary things were on sale and was certainly not indicative of impending doom in the form of uniquely frozen miniatures ice cubes from the sky.

Lo and behold.  We were finishing up a few things before heading off to bed and Carol took a peep out the window and couldn’t believe what she saw.  Our entire deck was covered in a thick layer of snow.  The sky was indeed falling and it was falling fast.  I headed out to grab some extra firewood to stack in the garage while Carol on the other hand thought it was completely necessary to torment me with snow balls while I performed this selfless act in the name of the safety and warmth of our dear family…  All is well though in Love and War.  She didn’t realize I was taking video and not pictures during her escapades in the snow!!!  Love You Hunny!

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